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Campaigns

One of the roles of a civil rights organisation is to address issues that may have a negative impact on society. Some of the most important campaigns that AfriForum undertakes are aimed against hate speech, farm murders and corruption.

National health insurance

What is National Health Insurance (NHI)?

The NHI is a central fund that the state wants to create, which will be executed by the various provincial health departments. The NHI-programme will be funded through additional tax revenue. The public can still belong to their own medical aid, but will still be obliged to contribute to the NHI fund monthly and to be a member of the NHI. The state will also make use of the services of private medical facilities and determine price controls over medication and services. The state will be in control of the entire health sector and medical treatment.

The NHI Bill can still be stopped in its tracks. The Bill was recently tabled in Parliament by Dr Zweli Mkhize, Minister of Health. This is the first step to ratify the Bill as an Act. A portfolio committee will then be appointed to consider the Bill, after which the public will be allowed to submit commentary on the Bill. It is important that as many people as possible should object to the implementation of the Bill by supporting AfriForum’s commentary on the Bill.

Why is AfriForum so strongly opposed to NHI?

AfriForum is of the opinion that this is yet another unrealistic and socialistic state project that will limit and ultimately destroy the freedom of the public (as healthcare consumers), as well as the freedom of doctors and other health practitioners (as the suppliers of healthcare).

AfriForum believes that the NHI will destroy the private health sector and that all service delivery will be lowered to the level of our current public health sector. Should the state implement the NHI, it will ultimately destroy the private health sector and medical aids by making it unaffordable for members of medical aids to still belong to these medical aids. This will mean that everyone in the country will ultimately be subjected to poor state services due to affordability reasons.

AfriForum furthermore views the NHI as a direct attack on the middle class and on quality medical care in South Africa. We also view this as a desperate attempt to try to compensate for the self-created mess in the public healthcare sector. There are also too few tax payers in the country to fund the NHI, and the economy is growing too slowly to make the NHI sustainable. As a result of a shortage of medical practitioners, medicine and people to fund the NHI, medical care will ultimately be more expensive for everyone.